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Knife & Mask

I know it was mentioned here already, but I can't stress the importance of a dive mask and dive knife enough.

A few years ago, the tube rope got tangled around the drive shaft. I spent over a hour going under the boat and pulling the rope out (without a knife or mask). This is what sealed the deal for me for always carrying these 2 tools on board.

Now fast forward to yesterday. While cruising across the lake at 26 mph to go eat at one of the local restaurants, the boat slowed dramatically, and I could tell we had something in the prop. I immediately shut it down, and knew I was going to have to get wet. I donned my mask and jumped in. What I found was a long blue rope tangled around the drive shaft. I pulled up on the line that went into the abyss, and wound up pulling up someone's anchor they abandoned.

Luckily I had my dive knife on board. In about 20 minutes, I was able to cut the rope off of the shaft, and get to dinner and a cold beer.

I would like to thank Russell for circling like a shark and calling me 'Scuba Steve'. On the bright side, I now have a 28lb anchor to sell.

A friend some years back just about messed up his boat because he didn't have a mask and knife. It was a Memorial Day weekend and he just got his new surf boat and at the campfire on the first night I told him the most important items to have on the boat and I mentioned the knife and mask. The next day, we took his boat out and I showed him the river features and the water was at high flow (approx. 8mph) and he decided to take the kids tubing. Well, he managed to get the rope caught in the prop and it happened upstream from the navigation buoys. We were basically dead in the water as he attempted to undo the mess at the prop to no avail. We headed to the first buoy and he had a choice of doing nothing and hope we go around it, starting the engine and attempt to limp away from the buoy or attempt to push off from the buoy. The last two options would have possibly done some damage to the boat. He got lucky and missed the buoy by about two feet and later he got a knife from a passing boater and got the rope free. He still talks about it to this day.

goggles and knife have certainly been used by myself. i wish i could say that it will never happen again, but it certainly will. I did just buy a cheap floating knife from Ebay for $6. if too cheap i'll go for some upgrade.